About this project

FALLEN

$113,594

1,311

Thank you to everyone involved in making Fallen's Kickstarter campaign such a huge success! A year ago when the game first took shape, we never imagined such an amazing response.

Thank you to all the commentors for your support and ideas that helped make this campaign successful.

Thank you to the backers who tested the game as well as the rest of those close to the Watchtower team who made Fallen even better.

And most of all, thank you to all our backers for not only your pledges, but for believing in the game. Fallen is so much more thanks to you. We could not have brought this game to so many without all of your support.

Fallen is a two-player card and dice game with fast and challenging game play, gorgeous art, and plenty of re-playability all
wrapped up in an ever-changing story.

One player chooses a Hero to delve deep within a dungeon, seeking the ultimate evil that waits below. Play as Seroth the Pit Fighter and fight to win at any cost, Merace the Sorceress and cast devastating spells, or Ranek the Thief striking from the shadows.

Every Hero comes with a unique character card depicting the hero
and the special abilities and proficiencies of that particular
character. Each hero also comes with nine unique skills to choose
from which are divided into three skill trees catering to a
particular proficiency. Ten signature Power cards also come with
each hero, giving them special abilities that are themed to their
style of play.

The second player takes on the role of the Dungeon Lord, summoning vile creatures and ancient spells to defeat the Hero. Play as the Archivist of Souls weaving
dark spells that plague the hero, the Forge Master, part
wizard and part machine, filling the dungeon corridors with horribly
augmented monstrosities, or as Krogarn the Ogre king sending
your primal horde and spirit magic to hunt down the adventurer.

Similar to the Hero, the Dungeon Lord has a character card that
depicts the chosen form as well as showing the special abilities
used by that character. In addition, ten signature Power cards come
with each Dungeon Lord that are specific to style of villainy.

Unique Story cards bring the dungeons of Fallen to life. These cards drive the action of game forcing the Hero to make choices about actions to take or locations to explore. Each choice determines a challenge's attribute rolled, difficulty, whether a valuable Treasure or Omen card are at stake, and if any damage is taken.

After adventuring through the dungeon, the Hero and Dungeon Lord clash in an epic battle between good and evil. The challenges are fast and furious as cards are played and custom dice are rolled.

This is the game of Fallen.

Take a look at previews of the characters in Fallen. Click on a character's portrait to learn more.

Pledges at Adventurer ($40) level or higher receive a boxed game of Fallen, the digital art book featuring many of the original illustrations in the game, thank you credit in the rule book, and all stretch goals.

Those who pledge at the top tiers of Enchanter ($200), Summoner ($200), or Sage ($200) add their custom creations as bonus content to every Kickstarter game of Fallen.

Fallen is loaded with enough content to keep you playing for a long time. If you want to pack even more adventure into your game, take your pledge to the next level by adding Adventure Packs. Each Adventure Pack ordered adds more challenges, more story, more creatures, more treasure, and helps make Fallen a reality.

When you pledge at Skeleton ($55) level or higher, we will contact you at the end of the Kickstarter campaign to see which packs you want to add to your game.

These Adventure Packs will NOT be available for sale at retail after the end of the Kickstarter campaign.

As the additional content in these packs is under production, not all art assets are currently displayed.

With your support, additional funding will unlock stretch goals to add even more to your game. All stretch goal content is exclusive to Kickstarter and will NOT be available at retail unless otherwise noted.

The driving goal behind Watchtower Games has always been to deliver fun and exciting games. Throughout the Kickstarter campaign and beyond, we pledge the following to you:

Transparency: We will let you know of any issues or challenges with the games whether it's production, new stretch goals, shipping, or game design updates. Keeping you current on developments will help Fallen succeed.

100% Full Game: We do not strip down the game or give you a lesser product in order to sell add-ons. The core boxed game available at Adventurer level and above is the result of a year of dedicated work. This is the game we've tested, loved playing, and worked with manufacturers to create at a reasonable cost. All bonus content here on the Kickstarter campaign is exactly that, bonus content. Adventure Packs and Stretch Goal content are being developed now, and as art assets arrive, we will put them up on the page.

Discount: Instead of offering a discounted game to just Early Birds, we've reduced the pledge price for everyone below the MSRP.

Shipping: We have put a lot of effort into keeping shipping costs as low as possible for our international backers. We want everyone to be able to enjoy the game of Fallen. Customers will be responsible for any custom fees, duties, or VAT. Below are the costs for shipping the game:

USA: No additional charge for shipping.

Europe:
Add $7 to your pledge. European backers will be responsible for VAT. See the FAQ below for more information.

Canada: Add $10 to your pledge.

Central/South America, and Mexico: Add $15 to your pledge.

Africa, Middle East, Asia, and Oceana: Add $20 to your pledge.

China (including Hong Kong): Our manufacturer has been kind enough to offer to ship directly to you. No additional charge for shipping.

Risks and challenges

Current challenges for the Fallen Kickstarter campaign include working with artists to deliver all the art assets for the Adventure Packs. As these are completed, the Adventure Pack graphics will be updated to show the new content.

Even though the game has been through exhaustive testing, even more testing will be scheduled throughout the Kickstarter campaign. As additional stretch goal content is added (such as new cards or the Huntress hero), the content will be added to the testing rotation to ensure it fits within the balanced game.

Unfortunately, we have little control over the ships at sea and should freight be waylaid in some way this will add to the time necessary to ship your product to you. We will keep you completely updated on any delays.

While your end goal for each challenge is to end up with more swords than your opponent, rolling the dice is just the beginning.

Resource management is the key to Fallen. After your initial roll, you have to decide if this is a roll you want to augment, how many resources do you want to put towards helping your roll, and which resources your going to use. Resources include Fortune tokens, Power cards, Ultimate abilities, Equipment cards, Omen cards, and Creature cards.

Do you burn the rest of your Fortune tokens now or save them for later on in the story card? Do you use your Ultimate ability to help win the challenge and recharge faster, or do you save it for a challenge when a Treasure is at stake? Do you use a Creature that can damage the hero but is not strong in winning challenges, or do you use a Creature who rolls lots of dice but its ability cannot be triggered?

Spreading out your resources, trying to guess when or why your opponent is pushing hard or giving up a little to easily (to save for the next challenge), and choosing the right Reward token at the end of each challenge to replenish the resources you are low on are all key to winning Fallen.

Story cards are large, 7 1/4 inch by 4 3/4 inch, double-sided cards loaded with flavor text. They provide a situation and a series of branching paths for the Hero to choose from. Each story card can be played in different ways with different resolutions based on the Hero's choices.

Imagine a game like Netrunner or Magic the Gathering with a Story card that connects each round of play. The choices made on this card affect how you play the game by making the challenge easy, difficult, using agility, intelligence, strength, battling over treasure, or dealing damage to the Hero immediately.

The Story cards are like the random dungeons of Diablo. They are small vignettes to set the scene and get the dice rolling. There are choices that you can easily tell are Strength versus Agility so the Hero can pick to their best ability, but most are heroic choices to make or interesting locations to explore. "Put Your Blade to the Goblin Prince's Throat VERSUS Cut the Scaffolding Ropes". "Jump Down the Chute after the Boy VERSUS Leave Him to his Fate". "Explore the Upper Balconies VERSUS Open the Rune Covered Door".

Do you make the choice that fits your strongest ability? Is one of the choices an obvious trap? Choose the risky challenge for more reward or the safer one so you don't get hit with a critical card? Was there information previously in the Story card about a dark shape moving around the Upper Balconies that should give me some warning?

Not all of the Story card choices and text line up with the dice and cards you play. There's simply too many options of cards, characters, creatures, dice symbols, and abilities to make every Story card match up in a smooth narrative. But with a little imagination, you can piece together the story yourself of how you took damage exploring the chasm or why that goblin is affecting your chances of sneaking past the giant.

The Story cards provide a fun setting and a structure for the game to be played within. The Dungeon Lord gains advantages by being able to look ahead through the card, while the Hero must listen careful to the text to make the right choices.

Hopefully our international backers understand the high cost of shipping board games, as well as the pesky VAT that makes getting games into the EU a major obstacle. VAT is a significant issue for all publishers let alone small, independent ones. We wish it wasn't there as much as you.

It takes plenty of resources and research to handle shipping overseas and handling VAT. Shipping abroad represents a significant portion of a game's cost. Independent publishers have to pay insane prices of UPS/FedEx ($130+), US Postal Service ($60), Stonemaier's complex network of multiple shipments, accounts, inventories, and setup fees (and a little luck), or try and piggy back off of bulk shipping discounts with various distributors.

It has been our goal right from the start to avoid the blanket "international shipping is $45" that keeps coming up on Kickstarter campaigns. We also wanted to avoid the trap of "$10 or Free shipping!" that other new publishers have fallen into, leaving them with a devastating shipping debt they were not prepared for. More than a few successfully funded game companies disappear quickly after not handling international shipping correctly. Not all solutions work the same for all Kickstarter campaigns.

As for Stonemaier, his Euphoria campaign, and his blog, he has been a tremendous asset to the gaming and publishing community. We, and many others, have researched all his articles, and they have been of very helpful. His recent article on international shipping and VAT is a serious undertaking that takes quite a bit of time to setup, $1k-2k in accounting fees, or in his case, a bit of luck to use a friend's account, as well as multiple shipments spread throughout the world, tracking of multiple inventories, and so on. It takes what is already a daunting task for a new publisher like Watchtower Games of manufacturing a quality game and increases the complexity of the operation many times over.

All we can ask for you VAT internationals is to understand that we are taking a loss to reduce the shipping charge to help out with the VAT. In the end, with your assistance in dealing with VAT, we reduced the shipping price to help out, and that lets us put our focus on the game.

The 80K goal is a benchmark to make expanding the game for an adventuring party a development priority.

This would be more than a minor addition to the game. It would most likely be a larger expansion with dice for extra players, additional Power cards (hero & dungeon lord), treasures, and all new story cards written in a party setting. It would be designed for 1 Dungeon Lord player and up to 3 Hero players in the same game.

At this time, we do not know the costs or design time required to create the party expansion, as we have not even begun the design yet, hence the 80k goal.

When this Party Expansion goal is reached, we would like to acknowledge our Kickstarter backers for their help in getting there with a reward that we will iron out later.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $200 or more
About $200

(Sage) Design a Story card included in every Kickstarter game game of Fallen + Get one boxed game of Fallen + all 4 Adventure Packs + the Digital Art Book + All Stretch Goals. (See "Shipping" at the bottom of the page)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $200 or more
About $200

(Enchanter) Design an Item card included in every Kickstarter game game of Fallen + Get one boxed game of Fallen + all 4 Adventure Packs + the Digital Art Book + All Stretch Goals. (See "Shipping" at the bottom of the page)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $200 or more
About $200

(Summoner) Design a Creature card included in every Kickstarter game game of Fallen + Get one boxed game of Fallen + all 4 Adventure Packs + the Digital Art Book + All Stretch Goals. (See "Shipping" at the bottom of the page)